


a beast of a different nature

by mother_hearted



Category: Odin Sphere
Genre: Asphyxiation, Gen, Power Dynamics, dark themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-19
Updated: 2012-03-19
Packaged: 2017-11-02 05:49:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/365625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mother_hearted/pseuds/mother_hearted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>you must have mistaken me for a better man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a beast of a different nature

He defeats the Inferno King with a crack the shape of a crescent moon in his armor and burns spread across his palms. 

Onyx has taken a knee, large body folded over in pain. 

Finally, he has won Gwendolyn's freedom from this kingdom of fire and ash - he allows himself a quiet sigh of relief. He is just turning to the stone pedestal when he hears,

"It will end up the same."

"What do you mean?"

Onyx isn't looking at him, his eyes focused on the sleeping body mere feet from Oswald.

"Though his crown may rust and his beard gray, Odin's mind remains as sharp as ever. Even if she is awakened by your touch, she will not love you."

"...the spell does not expand to the matters of her heart."

"No," Onyx coughs. "Are you overjoyed, Knight? You get to take your trophy."

Fire black as coal erupts in his belly.

"Do not call her that."

The hiss from his lips is serpentine, the heat of his anger coiling into the air around them. Onyx's smile in return, lips split and yet spread wide, does nothing to cool him. 

"Naive. Or is it false innocence? You cannot tell me that, a woman, so lovely like a bluebird who has escaped from it's cage, hasn't entranced you into keeping her for yourself."

"Watch your tongue or I shall cut if off and watch it for you."

His steps are few before he finds himself face to face with the crumpled demon of a man, looking up at him in satisfaction. 

"You desire her, deep in the shadowed crevices of your heart, you want her just as I do."

"I do not want a _trophy_ , she is not a _commodity_ to be moved by in a burlap sack."

"What will you do when you leave, will you mark her? Claim her with the teeth you are baring at me?"

For once, all Oswald can see is not darkness but _red_ , burning, explosive _red_. His arm extends forward in a blur, hand wrapping itself around Onyx's neck. A gasp, both pained and surprised, fills his ears. He yanks him up, watches the skin of his neck stretch taunt, the line of tendons pop out.

The metal of his gauntlets cuts into the skin like its parchment, thin and easy to shred. But he doesn't want to cut him, to bleed him, he wants to _silence_ , to take away a power he never seems to be without. Smooth words and sweet promises, poetic verses that drip from his tongue cornering you, playing with your knowledge of your own self.

He's far too good at it and Oswald _can't take it anymore_. He increases his grip, sees the effects of the added pressure, the slight bulge of his eyes, the color fading in his face, the rasps of pain that don't even resemble words. He can feel the all too fragile shape of his throat, the thinness, the inexplicable _weakness_ that surrounds it. Oswald squeezes, sees his chest no longer heaving, unable when nothing's coming in.

There's a brief moment when he imagines the pressure that must be building in his chest, wonders if it's pressing all along the walls of the cavity like a bomb waiting detonation. Does it build and build, until there's too much nothing even his heart empties and sags with a flop? He could kill him. He could kill him so easily like this, kill him with the knowledge that he is wrong.

He takes one last look at the face in front of him, deathly pale and mouth gaped open wide in a final act of submission, looking for the one ounce of breath that won't come. 

Oswald releases him, Onyx croaking loudly despite himself at the sudden seize of air in his lungs. The shadow knight turns on his heel and goes back to the pedestal where Gwendolyn lays.

Though they may both be monsters, he is a beast of an entirely different nature.


End file.
